When times get tough, do marketing leaders get fired? Three years of results from The CMO Survey indicate the answer is “No.” Looking at Figure 1, we can see that the number of years a

The CMO survey reports that companies anticipate hiring 7.2% more marketers in the next 12 months. The survey also shows that consulting companies will experience the largest increase (+17.3%) followed closely by manufacturing (+14.9%), technology

"Why Companies Adopt Growth Strategies: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly"

                                                                                  After asking top marketers to describe the nature of their growth strategies (see 8/6 post), The CMO Survey asked them to “Rate the top three reasons why your firm is pursuing this growth strategy.” I gave marketers the following options: (1) opportunity to leverage brands; (2) opportunity to leverage existing customer relationships; (3) threat of domestic competitors; (4) threat of foreign competitors; (5) pressure from price-sensitive customers; (6) pressure from the stock market; and (7) ambition of company leaders.

                                                                          Here’s the good news. When I sum up the ratings across the three top spots, the most highly cited reason is the “opportunity to leverage existing customer relationships” (27.3%). This is the always a good reason to grow and usually one that companies can do rather effectively and efficiently. Companies best understand their existing customers and so extending offerings to cross-sell or asking the customer to help reach other customers like them usually works.

You know the stats:  CMOs are reported to have an average life of just over 2 years.  You also know the gripe:  Marketing has an unproven effect on the firm’s performance in capital markets.  I